A dozen of the fraternity members left their house on Langdon St. to start the road trip to East Lansing, Mich., and the Badger match-up against the Michigan State Spartans. The 18th annual Tour de Touchdown will be a blustery 368-mile bike relay to raise money for American Family Children's Hospital.

“I think we’ll run into some bumps in the road, some flat tires," said Jake Russart, a senior from Brookfield. "It’ll be a good bonding experience for our last year here. It will be a good final send-off for us I guess.”

The squad has a game plan to add to the $120,000 raised to date. Each of the dozen will pedal for 10 to 20 miles, then return to the warmth of one of the support vehicles. They have just one bike, and a football autographed by coach Bret Bielema.

"While they fully intend to proceed with their local ordinance, I think the good news that came from that conversation is that at this time the Town of Hull safety committee has no interest in banning bicycles or demanding permits for small group rides or runs," Schlabowske wrote. "The Chairman told me the primary purpose of their draft local ordinance is to improve safety and increase compliance with the laws for all road users.

"That begins with reducing speeding by motorists (they are looking at traffic calming), getting pedestrians to walk opposite the direction of traffic and expecting bicyclists to obey stop signs, ride single or double file, etc. He emphasized that their local ordinance will be in complete compliance with all state laws."

Biking over the Hoan would be better, three dozen bicyclists concluded Monday after dodging traffic on a purposeful ride from Humboldt Park to the Discovery World Museum.

The result was no surprise.

State Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) and his legislative neighbor Rep. Jon Richards set up the lunch-time trip to show the dangers and inconvenience of the Bay View-to-downtown bike route the Wisconsin Department of Transportation chose 10 years ago. Then, the DOT rejected a proposal to add a bike and pedestrian lane to the bridge that connects the south side neighborhood to the lakeshore near Veterans Park.

Richards called it a “bitter conclusion.”

Almost the entire route is on busy streets, and bicyclists have no protection from motor vehicles. Richards called the experience pedaling on S. Kinnickinnic Ave. and S. 2nd St. “unnerving.”

State Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) will lead a bike ride Monday from the Humboldt Park Pavilion to the Discovery World Museum as part of a campaign for a bike lane on the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge.

Larson and his fellow legislators won't pedal over the bridge, which is closed to non-motorized traffic. Instead, they will take city streets from Bay View to the museum to illustrate the safety hazards on the route.

Riding the surface streets is intended to show how a path on the bridge would be a safer alternative for bikers connecting between the south side and Downtown.

Cyclists, staff from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and other local officials have been invited to join the group in Humboldt Park at 11 a.m.

Officials from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation are examining the feasibility of adding a bike and walking lane to the Hoan, during a major renovation slated to begin in 2013. A consultant hired by the state is preparing a report on the cost and logistics. That review is expected to be finished later this fall.

The Milwaukee Board of Harbor Commissioners sided with cycling advocates on Thursday and endorsed bike and pedestrian traffic on the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge.

The unanimous vote in favor of a supportive resolution came just a week after Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke called a bike lane on the Hoan "the dumbest idea I ever heard." Clarke made his comments while discussing the death of Bobby E. Jiles, 39, who was hit by a car while tending to his disabled vehicle in a southbound traffic lane. The collision knocked Jiles off the bridge.

Since then, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and local law enforcement worked to improve safety for traffic on the bridge, which has limited room for vehicles due to ongoing repair work.

The Harbor Commission oversees the Port of Milwaukee, directly under the Hoan, and serves as the landlord for the city's property extending from the Coast Guard station in Bay View to the Henry Maier Festival Grounds and Veteran's Park.

The resolution in support of a bike accommodation includes a caveat: that the access for bikers and pedestrians can be provided safely.

Police in Mount Pleasant reported Thursday that Ray E. Fliess, 88, died of the injuries he suffered when a car hit him while he biked along Sunny Slope Rd. Dr. Saturday morning.

The crash occurred around 7:20 a.m., while Fliess was southbound in a dedicated bicycle lane, approaching Mariner Drive, police said. He was airlifted by a Flight for Life helicopter to Froedtert Memorial Hospital, where he died late Wednesday.

On the Town of Hull web site, Chairman John Holdridge writes about embracing the 21st century.

That might include keeping bicyclists and pedestrians off the town roads, via an ordinance drafted by a task force on public safety.

The Stevens Point Journal reports that the proposed law would require biking, running or walking groups to register their travel plans with the town or bans them from using roads outright. The Public Safety Task Force has an opportunity to take another look at the ordinance at its next meeting on Oct. 20.

The town, north of Stevens Point in Portage County, has about 82 miles of roads and about 5,300 people.

If Jeff Castelaz was a man of few words, his answer would have been simply no.

If he was less gracious, he would have added an obscenity.

Instead, the Milwaukee native explained again how losing an older brother and then a 6-year-old son to cancer motivated him to start a charity, raise nearly $2 million for cancer research and lead bike rides across the country, traveling 50, 70, 100 miles a day for the catharsis that pedaling a bicycle provides.

He’s immersed himself in the cause. He’s made a difference.

But no, he said, “It does not make me feel any less cosmically tortured over the loss of my son.”

As his photo shows, crews have added crushed gravel on the section from S. 121st St. to the connection with the Oak Leaf Trail, just south of Blue Mound Rd. The crushed gravel extension from 94th Pl. should be finished by mid-November, according to earlier reports from the DOT.

Milwaukee music fans will remember Jeff Castelaz as an integral part of the band Citizen King and a manager who went on to launch his own label, Dangerbird Records, in Los Angeles.

The one-time WMSE disc jockey has new pursuits - biking across the country - inspired by the death of his son Pablo Thrailkill Castelaz, who died of cancer at age 6.

Castelaz and his wife, Jo Ann Thrailkill, created the Pablove Foundation to raise money to fight childhood cancer and have raised more than $1 million through the cross-country bike rides he started in 2009.

The first Pablove Across America went from St. Petersburg, Fla., to Los Angeles; and the second from Seattle to L.A.

Castelaz’ third tour starts in Milwaukee on Saturday morning. It’s a 17-day, 1,425-mile ride starting at the Hilton City Center and ending in New Orleans. Pro rider Christian Vande Velde will be part of the group giving Castelaz a lead-out at 7 a.m.